Two Scottish pranksters got a laugh in Leith, Edinburgh, when they faked a well-timed ax murder just as a Google Street View car rolled by.

The camera recorded multiple angles of the apparent murder in August 2012, showing a man in a red jumpsuit sprawled face down on Giles Street with the “killer” hovering over him, ax in hand. In one shot, the perp, in a maroon polo, appears to be walking away.

“It was in the spur of the moment,” Dan Thompson, who carried out the sick joke with co-worker Gary Kerr, told the UK’s The Independent. “It seemed like the obvious thing to do so I threw myself on the ground and Gary grabbed a pick-axe handle from the garage. We only had about 20 seconds — it was all we could think of.”

Police investigated after someone reported seeing the disturbing scene on Google Street View, and discovered it was just a joke.

The two men said they forgot all about the prank — until alarmed friends and family started calling.

“It’s absolutely bizarre,” said Thompson. “I suppose people don’t spend their time looking on Street View at a rough backstreet in Leith.”